Ground lease capital for sponsors and owners

Your land is your cheapest capital.

We buy the land under your building or your project and lease it back for 99 years. You keep the building and the upside; the land cost comes out of the stack at a fixed, non-amortizing cost, with no maturity, no promote and no one to buy out. Below roughly $35 million of total cost we are the buyer, with our capital partners. Above it we structure the split and take it to every buyer whose box it fits.

What the land funds

Capital for the problem you actually have.

Sell us the land under the building or the project, keep the building and the upside, and pay a rent sized to what the property can carry. The proceeds replace the most expensive piece of the stack.

Construction

Close with less cash equity.

The land contract funds day one; the balance comes through milestone draws after sponsor equity spends first. The construction lender sizes the building, not the dirt.

Construction financing →
Pref & mezz

Take out the 12 to 15 percent money.

Land proceeds at a fixed, non-amortizing cost, no maturity, no promote, no one to buy out. The piece that grinds the GP goes away.

Replacing preferred equity →
Loan maturity

Fill the gap at refinance.

When the new loan sizes short, the land covers the difference without a capital call or a second mortgage.

Solving a loan maturity →
Stalled projects

The land is finished collateral.

A project that stopped mid-construction still sits on land we can buy today. Completion capital without a rescue lender’s terms.

Completion capital →
Hotels

Fund the PIP, the takeout, or the acquisition.

Hotels carry the widest yields in commercial real estate, so the spread over a ground cap unlocks the most land value relative to total cost.

Hotel ground leases →
C-PACE

When C-PACE is blocking the refinance.

The land is the way out. We sit ahead of nothing except the lease, and we never sit behind PACE.

C-PACE and the land →
The box

What we buy, and what we never do.

Inside the box

  • Commercial property of any type, any state, stabilized or in development.
  • Land value of roughly $2 million to $14 million per deal with our capital partners; larger deals structured and placed.
  • Rent at 20 to 30 percent of stabilized NOI, so the building carries it three to four times over.
  • Price built from the rent at a long-term land yield, re-scaled symmetrically if the numbers move.
  • Proceeds capped at about 35 percent of whole value, which is what keeps the leasehold financeable.

Never

  • A subordinated fee. The land is never behind the leasehold lender.
  • Fair-market-value rent resets. Escalations are fixed, with a capped inflation test.
  • Lending on the leasehold. We arrange that debt; we do not hold it.
  • Sitting behind C-PACE, or next to HUD.
  • A number in a signed document that the lender has not seen first.
How it is sized

Your number. Our sizing.

1
Size the rent

Rent is a share of stabilized NOI, 20 to 30 percent, from your own proforma.

2
Price the land

Price is the rent capitalized at a long-term land yield. If the NOI moves, the price moves with it, both directions.

3
Write the lease

Unsubordinated, fixed escalations, never a market reset. The form every leasehold lender accepts.

4
Close

We are the buyer from the first number to the closing table. The clock is title and your lender.

Run the numbers on your own building.  ·  What an indicative land bid looks like.

For investors

Ground leases, made to order for the capital that owns them.

Every ground lease we originate is a land position someone wants to own: 99 years, unsubordinated, fixed escalations, a building standing behind the rent. We find the property, size the rent and write the lease for family offices, private investors and 1031 exchangers who tell us their box once and then see one deal at a time. How the program works · 1031 Solutions · See the two halves.

The land

99-year unsubordinated lease, fixed escalations, nothing to manage. For the investor or exchanger who wants long, quiet income and never a call.

The building

The income and the depreciation, on the same land under the same lease. For the investor who needs yield now.

What we do

We make ground leases, and we advise on them.

01

For owners and developers

We buy the land under your building or project, with our capital partners, and write the lease to the standard every leasehold lender uses. You keep the building.

Sell the land, keep the building
02

For investors

New ground leases originated to your box: sourced, underwritten and papered, one whole position at a time, under finished buildings or new projects.

Ground leases made to order
03

Advisory

A sponsor needs the land cost out of the stack. A land investor needs a lease to own. We find both, structure the split, write the lease and arrange the debt. We make the market where the two meet.

How we make the market · Help with a lease you did not write
The difference

Flexible where it matters. Rigid where the lender needs it.

We are flexible on the things that kill deals for no good reason: size, market, timing, how the price is built when land value and project cost disagree, how a sponsor’s equity and pre-development spend are credited. We are rigid on the things that make a leasehold financeable, because that is what makes the deal close. Gentle on structure, immovable on the lease. How we got here.

Questions, answered

FAQ.

What does Valor Ground Lease Ventures do?

We make ground leases. We buy the land under commercial buildings and projects, with our capital partners, and lease it back for 99 years, so the owner or sponsor takes the land cost out of the capital stack and keeps the building. We originate those leases for investors who want to own them, and on larger or more complex deals we structure the transaction and bring the two sides together. Washington, DC, founded 2015.

What does a ground lease cost an owner?

Rent sized at 20 to 30 percent of stabilized NOI, escalating 2 percent a year with a capped inflation test every ten years. Against the proceeds that is a fixed, non-amortizing cost with no maturity, no promote and no one to buy out, compared with 10 to 15 percent for preferred equity or mezzanine.

How fast is a land bid?

Send stabilized NOI, total cost and the address and you get an indicative land bid built the same way every time: rent as a share of NOI, price as rent divided by the ground cap. Days, not weeks.

Will my construction lender accept the lease?

Yes. The lease is written to the standard every leasehold lender uses: fee never subordinated, term running at least thirty years past loan maturity, fixed escalations with no market reset, rent paid without offset. That is the one place we do not negotiate, because it is what makes the leasehold financeable.

Who buys the land positions you create?

Capital partners: family offices, private investors and 1031 exchangers who want to own land under a 99-year lease. Each buys a whole position and tells us in advance what they want to own. Fractional structures are arranged privately with licensed partners and never offered on this site.

Get your number

Send us the deal.

Stabilized NOI, total cost and the address. You get an indicative land bid, built the same way every time, in writing. Investors: the inventory is on the 1031 Solutions page.

No NDA and no client names needed. These four facts are enough for a real number.

Or email [email protected].

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